A Defiant Liaison

XXIII

"A year from now you may wish you had started today." Karen Lamb

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XXIII.

Peter never knew it was possible for someone to simply vanish off the face of the earth, but Belle had managed to do just that. She was gone. There was no trace of her save for the ribbon and shoe that she had left behind in the garden.

He and Adam had searched all night, taking the main roads and trails all around Ashwood and the neighbouring villages. They didn't see a carriage. They didn't see horses. They didn't see a girl being dragged down the road against her will. They didn't see anything.

They returned to the assembly hall when the sun rose. This was the place where Belle had last been seen, and they hoped that there might be other clues left behind that they had not been able to see the night before.

"Good God, Peter!" cried Adam, as they approached the bench where he and Belle had been sitting last. Adam bent down to collect something off of the ground. He rose with a small rock, about the size of his fist. Half of it was caked in dark, dried blood.

Whatever had been numbing Peter's pain had dulled. It was as though he had taken an imaginary dose of laudanum to help him on his initial search, but it was waning. Peter's headache was terrible, and his balance and coordination were making riding a horse difficult.

That rock was clearly the weapon that had been used by the culprit to incapacitate him.

"Did you hear anyone behind you? Did you see anyone? Do you remember anything now that you are back in the garden?" Adam asked, frowning deeply as he placed the rock down on the bench.

"I don't remember hearing anyone," Peter replied. "I was preoccupied." He had been determined to kiss Belle, to propose to her if she would let him. He had been so determined to do this that he had brought her outside alone. "I didn't consider the risk," Peter hissed, cursing himself. "I didn't think of her safety at all. I was thinking of myself. I wanted to be alone with her and ... and ..." Peter looked around helplessly.

"You weren't to know," Adam said firmly. "How could you have known?"

"I know what is appropriate," Peter spat back. "I know that bringing a woman outside alone is not, and if I was thinking like a gentleman, and not like a stupid lovestruck boy, I would never have put her in this position." He sucked in a staggered breath. "And now she's gone!"

Adam ignored Peter's remarks and continued searching, keeping his eyes low. "Look here," he called, pointing to an area on the ground. "You can see the indents in the grass and the dirt. Someone was being dragged. Belle was being dragged."

Peter could see the tracks in the grass made by Belle's feet as she was dragged towards the direction of the front of the assembly hall. She had to have been taken in and amongst the chaos of the carriages, horses and drivers. But nobody had paid attention to her. She had been smuggled into a carriage or something, and nobody had noticed. How could this happen?

Peter thought that his head might explode with worry.

"What's this?" Adam wondered aloud. He walked over to one of the garden beds, and picked up a bit of paper that had somehow gotten itself wedged in and amongst the foliage. It appeared to be damp with the dew of the morning. "Oh." Adam scoffed.

"What?" asked Peter. "What is it?"

"It's nothing," replied Adam. "I thought it might have been important, but it is just a bit of old newspaper." Looking down at it, he laughed in an irritated tone. "It's that bloody story that was written after Susanna's wedding. Why does this garbage insist on following us around?"